I recently returned from a family camping trip which was half wonderful and half terrible. The terrible half was at nighttime, surprised? Not if you are a parent of two young ones.

The wonderful half was spent at the beach, totally enamored by how beautiful and independent my children are becoming and relishing the fact that I could just sit, watch, and enjoy without their constantly needing me.  However, all this sitting and watching on the beach brought something concerning to my attention. I know that childhood obesity is a growing issue, but I hadn’t truly noticed the issue with my own eyes until observing multiple unhealthy looking children on the beach.

This observation led to some soul searching about whether or not I am setting up my children for success it terms of health and fitness. I realized that in many ways I have been failing them in this aspect and it scared me. Honest truth, I let them have too many treats. Why? Because I am letting myself have too many unhealthy treats (an iced cap for mommy means a timbit for the wee ones). Which led me to a hard truth: I am not exemplifying a healthy lifestyle for them nor leading them in one of their own.

I have been putting off exercising and healthy eating for some time with the lame excuse of: after I’m done all the projects that I’m working on around the house I’ll start exercising again and make healthier meals. Reality check: I will never be done with all my projects, for every one I finish I create three more.

So what do I do? I give myself a kick in the butt and make my family’s health a priority. I’m starting with four small goals:

1.) Start exercising myself , for even 20 minutes, twice a week. Baby steps my friends. I want to and may do more but I get easily discouraged if I don’t set tangible goals. Thankfully, I don’t need to encourage the kids to exercise, they never stop moving.

2.) Make healthy snacks a priority. Ex-nay on the copious amounts of fishy crackers and sweets. Bring on the blueberries, strawberries, and honey nut cheerios.

3.)  Incorporate healthier dinners into our regular family fair (I excel at making cheesy, delicious, unhealthy comfort meals). I’m absorbed in the idea of paleo food at the moment and the kids have liked 3 for 4 of the recipes from thepaleoplan. Thems some good stats.

4.) Don’t drink a rummy sweet drink every night.

There they are. Four simple goals for one healthier family. And they won’t hurt the ol’ bikini bod either.

 

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